Fairfield-Suisun school board OKs district budget

As expected, since a state-mandated deadline loomed, Fairfield-Suisun Unified leaders this week approved a $155 million budget, about $4 million of it deficit spending, for the 2013-14 academic year.

The district will have an $8.1 million ending balance, some $3.5 million more than it needs for a prudent reserve.

Superintendent-designate Kristin Corey, who on Monday will replace the retiring Jacki Cottingim-Dias, said school officials raised a number of questions about the budget, particularly since Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state's new $96 billion budget just hours before the board meeting.

"We don't know what all of it will mean to Fairfield-Suisun Unified," she said, adding the governor has yet to sign AB 97, the law that will put into effect his modified Local Control Funding Formula. It calls for more local control of the money districts receive from the state and will provide poorer districts -- defined as having 55 percent or more of English language learners, low-income and foster children -- with a larger share of state aid.

Laneia Grindle, the district's director of fiscal services, made the presentation to the board before its unanimous vote.

She said, for the time being, Solano County's largest school district, with 22,000 students, will operate under existing state financial guidelines until Brown's new plan is fleshed out with regulations and procedures.

Grindle said the district may qualify for the additional AB 97 money, in the form of "concentration grants," in addition to base and supplemental grants, that the LCFF will bring.

In the meantime, the district will move forward until more details on the governor's plan are clarified, she said.

By law, Grindle must send the budget to the County Office of Education by midnight tonight.